hey! for todays protest, i made this little zine about palestine (holding just simple and basic information).
you can download the zine here, fold it yourself, and distribute it around.
no credit is needed. feel free to leave it around bars, protests, or wherever. simply print it (borderless) and fold it. here is a tutorial on how to do it.
dont stay silent. there is a genocide of horrendous, atrocious proportions going on. also if you are a zionist here to argue with me, i dont plan to entertain you at all, not on my art blog. fuck off, you'll be swiftly blocked. i see enough of you clowns on my main and i have no energy for you. you can skip the death threats too bc i dont give a shit.
(i'm off to get ready for a surgery now, i just wanted to post it before this. if you need anything, i might take a bit to reply)
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I was joking a while back that the actor they have playing KDJ for the orv movie was too handsome for him and a friend who's read orv was like "KDJ is actually secretly attractive!!" And I just felt my soul leave my body right then
SIGHS...
Okay. Buckle in. I'm gonna finally actually address and explain and theorize about this whole...thing.
I'm not gonna cite any exact chapters cause it's like 11:30 and I've got an 8 hour drive in the morning but I'll at least make an approximate reference to where certain things are mentioned. Also, this post is just my personal interpretation for a good bit of it, but it's an interpretation I feel very solid about, so do with that what you will. Moving on to the meat of things:
There is one (1) instance in the web novel that I know of which describes specific features of Kim Dokja (especially ones other people notice). This takes place when members of KimCom are trying to make Kim Dokja presentable to give his speech at the Industrial Complex (after it's been plopped down on Earth). This is when they start really paying attention and focusing on Kim Dokja's appearance since they're putting makeup on him; I still don't think they can interpret his whole face, but they can accurately pick out and retain more features than usual. If I remember correctly they reference him having long eyelashes, smooth skin, and soft hair. These features can be viewed as (stereotypically) attractive.
Certain parts of the fandom have taken this scene and run with it at a very surface level, without realizing (or without acknowledging at the very least) that this scene is not about how Kim Dokja looks. This is, in part, due to not realizing or acknowledging why Kim Dokja's face is "censored" in the first place, and what that censoring actually means. I think it's also possible that some people are assuming the censorship works like a physical phenomena rather than an altered perception.
I'll address that last point first. The censorship of Kim Dokja's features is not something as simple as a physical phenomena. It's not a bar or scribble or mosaic over his face. If that were true it'd be very obvious to anyone looking at him that his face is hidden. But his face is not hidden to people. They can look at him and see a face. If they concentrate on his eyes, they can see where he's looking. They know when he's frowning or grinning. They see a face loud and clear. But what face are they seeing? Because it's not really his, whatever they're seeing.
No one quite agrees on what he really looks like. And if they try and think about what he looks like, they can't recall. Or if they do, it's vague, or different each time. We notice these little details throughout the series. Basically, Kim Dokja's face is cognitively obscured. Something - likely the Fourth Wall, though I can't recall if this is ever stated outright - is interfering with everyone's ability to perceive him properly. This culminated in him feeling off to others; and since they don't even realize this is happening, they surmise that he is "ugly."
Moving on to the other point about what the censorship means: To be blunt, the censorship of his face is an allegory for his disconnect from the "story" (aka: real life, and the real people at his side). The lifting - however slight - of this censorship represents him becoming more and more a part of the "story" (aka: less disconnected from the life he is living and the people at his side). The censorship's existence and lifting can represent other things - like dissociation or depersonalization or, if you want to get really meta, the fact that he is all of our faces at once - but that's how I'd sum up the main premise of it. (The Fourth Wall is a larger part of the dissociation allegory, but that's for another post).
So you see, them noticing his individual features isn't about the features. It's not about the features! It doesn't matter at all which features got listed. Because they could describe any features whatsoever and it would not change the entire point of the scene. Because the point isn't what he looks like. The point is that they can truly and clearly see these features. For the first time. They are seeing parts of him for the first time. Re-read that sentence multiple times, literally and metaphorically. What does it mean to see someone as they are?
This is an extremely significant turning point dressed up as a dress-up scene.
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P.S. / Additionally, I'm of the opinion that Kim Dokja is not handsome, and he is not ugly. He is not pretty, and he is not ghastly. Not attractive, nor unattractive. Kim Dokja isn't any of these things. More importantly, Kim Dokja can't be any of these things. The entire point of Kim Dokja is that you cannot pick him out of a crowd; he is the crowd. He's a reader. He's the reader. Why does he need to be handsome? Why must he be pretty? Why is him being attractive necessary or relevant? He doesn't, he doesn't, it's not. He is someone deeply deeply loved and irreplaceable to those around him, and someone who cannot even begin to recognize or accept that unless it's through a love letter masquerading as a story he can read. He is the crowd, a reader, the reader. He's you, he's me. He's every single one of us.
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Disclaimer that I might be wrong about this, only personal impressions etc., but I feel like there exists a tendency to often depict first age Galadriel as not only particularly distanced but also disdainful towards the rest of her kin, particularly regarding Alqualondë. Which is very interesting to me, if you consider that she's the one who gets a scene of direct and pointed questioning with Melian about the finer points of the exile and lies (even if by omission) to her face. Which occurs after she had already established a stable acquaintanceship with her.
Galadriel his sister went not with him to Nargothrond, for in Doriath dwelt Celeborn, kinsman of Thingol, and there was great love between them. Therefore she remained in the Hidden Kingdom, and abode with Melian, and of her learned great lore and wisdom concerning Middle-earth.
-Chapter 13: OF THE RETURN OF THE NOLDOR
She furthermore also seems committed to letting bygones be bygones:
And on a time Melian said: ‘There is some woe that lies upon you and your kin. That I can see in you, but all else is hidden from me; for by no vision or thought can I perceive anything that passed or passes in the West: a shadow lies over all the land of Aman, and reaches far out over the sea. Why will you not tell me more?’
‘For that woe is past,’ said Galadriel; ‘and I would take what joy is here left, untroubled by memory. And maybe there is woe enough yet to come, though still hope may seem bright.’
-Chapter 15: OF THE NOLDOR IN BELERIAND
Which is not to say that she couldn't have born a grudge about Alqualondë, but rather that she prioritized unity among the Noldor and Sindar over acting on said grudge and made the deliberate choice to try and move on, even at the cost of her personal integrity (since she presumable started her tutelage while the first kinslaying was still kept a secret which is...audacious to say the least).
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Hi! I was wondering if you’ve ever heard of ‘nutrition response testing’ (also called ‘applied kinesiology’ and ‘contact reflex analysis’)? I had it done a few days ago by a holistic health care practice and they recommended several (expensive) supplements for various health issues. I didn’t know that was what was going to happen going in, my mom got a recommendation for their practice and convinced me to try it. I was originally going to go along with it, since they really sounded like they knew what they were talking about, and made me feel very heard and respected, but now I’m not so sure. They made a pretty big oversight regarding me being allergic to one of the recommended supplements, which lead to me doing a ton of research on everything they were doing. It was pretty inconclusive. Some sites said it’s complete pseudoscience and doesn’t work at all, but I’ve also seen a lot of people claim it helped them with decades long health issues. I just really don’t know what to make of this, or where to go to figure it out, so I figured I’d ask you.
I also know several people who found relief from symptoms from seeing kinesiologists.
I respect their experiences and am glad they found help, but as someone who worked the holistic circuit for many years and still uses some holistic treatments in my own health journey, I am going to urge an abundance of caution going forward.
In holistic circles, there's a tendency to throw supplements at you to see what sticks. If you feel better, great! You possibly had a deficiency you were either unaware of or were just on the cusp of borderline so it wasn't flagged up in regular testing.
If you don't, there's a tendency to tell you to keep taking them because "these things take time," and also have you tried {x other product they also just so happen to sell in their clinic.}
And people do it, usually because the supplements cost less than going to see the actual doctor, or their doctor doesn't make them feel heard and this nice person is offering them a solution while sounding very confident about it.
One of the major draws of holistic medicine for a lot of people is that it lets sick people feel heard. We take time with people to make them feel valid and cared for because that is also an important part of the healing process. But again, speaking as someone with multiple holistic qualifications and who still uses some of them, holistic care is not a substitute for conventional medicine. It can be a good addition, but it should not be your only method of treatment.
Now, not all of these items are useless and not all people who sell supplements and other such things in their clinic are suspicious.
It's just that there's very little regulation on who can sell these kind of things (as well as very little regulation of the supplements themselves), and you need to be careful about who you trust and be aware of how they are being promoted to you.
(One way to do this is look up the brand of supplements being sold and seeing who their parent company is. Chiropractors, for instance, are notorious for buying supplements from companies that operate like MLMs, giving them incentive to shill them to all their patients whether they need them or not.)
It's true, some holistic types are very good at spotting deficiencies in how the body looks and responds to certain things. Especially if they have legitimate medical training to back up their practice. But that is also true of any conventional doctor who pays attention.
I walked in to see my PCP not too long ago and he was able to diagnose a zinc deficiency due to the symptoms I was describing and a subtle change he noticed in my nails.
Hell, my dentist was the one who figured out my mouth ulcers and the muscle tic in my jaw might be a b12 deficiency and urged me to see the doctor who ultimately saved my life.
In those instances, supplementation was necessary because I have chronic underlying conditions that prevent me from absorbing nutrients from my food.
Unlike any kinesiologist I've known, however, both instances were followed up with diagnostic blood work to check the accuracy of those suspected deficiencies, both to ensure it was correct but also ensure appropriate supplemental dosing.
I can't tell you the number of times someone has suggested I take "shit-yourself" levels of magnesium because someone who also shills essential oils on the side told them to. No thank you.
You didn't mention if the person you saw wanted to do diagnostic blood testing before offering you supplements, but if they didn't, that's a red flag for me. The fact that they missed an allergy you presumably told them about is another (just as it would be for a regular doctor).
So, should you listen to them? That's up to you. I personally prefer to see doctors who take a more holistic approach to the body, but I also know enough to combine it with conventional medicine and when testing is needed. I have that experience and know-how. Not everyone does, and it can be very easy to trust the nice person telling you to Buy Their Shiny Tonic To Cure Thine Ailments.
Maybe it'll help, maybe it won't. But it sounds like your gut is giving you a warning sign. I'd be inclined not to ignore it.
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